Remember when you were ks-ing the coconuts of your opposing team? Remember when you followed someone blindly and got warped to the starting point? Remember when you hit 10 damage to this snowball regardless of your level? (Credits to the sources of the pictures) These were the events that we all looked forward to and enjoyed in the starting years of MapleStory. (So much nostalgia) I would like to suggest automated GM events of Coconut Harvest, Ola Ola and Snowball at regular intervals of 6 or 8 hours. The reason why I suggest automated is because GMs can hold more interactive events such as those made by Raddy. The 3 events that I mentioned do not require much interaction by GMs, thus they can be automated. Of course, the rewards for automated events must be less valuable than GM hosted events. Some reward ideas are 10/60% scrolls, potions/food, meso, equipments and ores. I do not know anything about coding, so I do not know how difficult it will be to code automated events. I know that other servers have automated events, so you can "copy" their codes. If you do not know what the above events are, please visit this link: Strategy Wiki - GM Events
These were automated in LunaMS along with physical fitness and it wasn't better than what we have now.
The coconut and snowball events look like fun, but I don't care for the idea of automated events at all. One of the things that's really good about Maple Royals is the feeling of community, and I think automated events would detract from that.
+1. Automated events take away from the interaction between player-to-player and player-to-GM. But let's say the prizes weren't chairs. Instead maybe something 1 Gachapon ticket or 1000 NX for each person on the winning team? I'd be down for that. I feel like any prize smaller than that and people (of the very scientific and representative sample including me and me only) would be pretty hesitant to participate. But anything bigger would take away from the hosted events. If that's the case, that's still quite a bit of a prize and I'd say to make the event run every 20 hours or so. (24 is unrealistic since it means people of a certain timezone would be more able to participate. With 20 hours we get a nice rotation.) Just 2 cents, I guess.
I think automated events are an amzing idea and I prefer them over GM events because to be honest most GM's pissfart around, take forever, are unorganized etc. An automated event runs to completion and that's it. Maybe winners could get "event points' which can be redeemed for prizes at an NPC. Of course there are events that wouldn't work without a GM so it's not like automated events would kill out the GM events.
Bella, I personally have never been to any event that was totally unorganized... So I don't see what you're aiming at. And secondly, automated events don't seem like a good idea to me, especially not at 6-8 hour intervals. But, of course, if you like those events you just listed, then I'm sure the other GMs and me are more than willing to host those every once in a while.
I did not include Physical Fitness event because it does not involve player-to-player interaction. The other events mentioned above involves team work and at least some interaction between the players. The idea of NX as reward is not good because hackers will win the events since it is not controlled by GMs. These automated events can provide some satisfaction to players who miss GM held events.
This is an example of an event that has to be done by GM's, but the one event I went to on this server involved quiz questions, and the first person to PM the answer to the GM got to choose people to remove from the room. Good idea, other than the fact that there were massive delays between the questions, and everybody was getting bored and frustrated as a result, and unwilling to stay quiet between questions making it tougher to see in the spam. Had the GM been more organised and had the questions ready to go, and a way of copy pasting them really fast, everybody would have been more engaged and it would have been less tedious and frustrating. That's only one example, and it might be that other events have all been great, but this is an example of one that wasn't. And I was far from the only person complaining about it. I cannot remember which GM was running it.
You're talking about Betrayal Q&A. If you think many people got bored because it was taking long, then I will personally try my best to do it faster. However, such delays between questions are often caused by people taking a fairly long time with deciding who to kick, too, thus not only GMs are to blame. But lets steer clear of these topics; this thread is about automated events. I will try my best to be faster during such events, and I hope the other GMs will try their best, too.
No. GM's are required at GM events to make sure everything runs smoothly. And to give the social aspect between GM's and the players. If a GM wasn't at a GM event it wouldn't really be a GM event o_o. I have thought about 'random events' though. But meh, I don't think they are required.
@Saxa&Marty - just because you've never been to an unorganized event does not mean they do not happen. Personally, I don't participate in anyone but Lloyd's events for this reason. Lol. I haven't been on since probably the beginning of January though, so forgive me if everyone is up to par now - but previously they were not. I'm not the only one with this opinion because I definitely recall the smega flooding of whining and complaining about GM events in the past - regularly. It has nothing to do with liking those particular events and wanting a GM to host them, the whole point is to have them running frequently without the need of a GM so no one misses out and we're not bored. I've just recently come back and I spend hours online and don't see GM hosted events during my particular play, potentially a timezone issue which would be rectified with automated events. Edit: Don't call them Automated GM events then if we're going to nitpick. They're just automated events.
Most GMs live in timezones like GMT, GMT+1 and GMT-5... So yeah, that might be a problem. And concerning the events... half the staff has been changed. And this problem... with the lack of events in given timezones... Sure, it might be solved with automated events. Still don't see any point in 'em, though; we host 2 events daily normally, mostly Lazz, Amy, Dustin and myself... And KC, too, occasionally.
I do see where you're coming from here, Bella, and the issue of time zones is one that does need to be addressed, so that people don't miss out on events because of the time zone they're in.
It would most likely make the connection between GMs and players go "boom", as the system would take care of a little special thing that GMs usually does. I'd rather trust GMs then a scripted system, if you look at it like it's a robot taking care of it. I don't trust automatic systems (some exceptions are obviously made), but point is; I don't find it usefull to script. Events are something that's meant to be special, thus leading me onto voting "no".
